Baxter County food safety inspections focused on establishments in Mountain Home, Elizabeth and Henderson during June.

There were several infractions that focused on the hands of employees, often centered around access to the hand-washing stations or bare hands.

According to the Arkansas State Board of Health's rules and regulations for food establishments, "food employees shall keep their hands and exposed portions of their arms clean."

Employees are to wash their hands in a hand-washing sink or approved automatic hand-washing facility, and may not clean their hands in a sink used for food preparation or ware washing.

They also are not to wash hands in a service sink or curbed cleaning facility used for the disposal of mop water and similar liquid waste.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, keeping the hands clean is one of the most important steps for preventing the spread of germs — in both the individual and others.

"Feces from people or animals is an important source of germs like Salmonella, E. coli O157, and norovirus that cause diarrhea, and it can spread some respiratory infections like adenovirus and hand-foot-mouth disease," according to the CEC. "These kinds of germs can get onto hands after people use the toilet or change a diaper, but also in less obvious ways, like after handling raw meats that have invisible amounts of animal poop on them.

"A single gram of human feces — which is about the weight of a paper clip — can contain one trillion germs. Germs also can get onto hands people touch any object that has germs on it because someone coughed or sneezed on it or was touched by some other contaminated object. When these germs get onto hands and are not washed off, they can be passed from person to person and make people sick."

It's due to the potential spread of germs that food safety inspectors nationwide make note of whether a sink is accessible, used properly and stocked with cleansing fluid. While there are other regulations in regards to what the food comes into contact with, it's the preparers' hands that often are the first and last thing that come into proximity of the food before it reaches the customer.

Hand washing goes beyond food preparation into other types of business, especially medical and educational. Children are taught from an early age to wash their hands after getting dirty or touching unclean things.

For most people, the habit continues after childhood and carries on for the rest of their lives.

As a public service, The Baxter Bulletin publishes the food inspection reports the first Saturday of every month.